CLEVELAND (AP)  Sixteen Amish men and women whose hate crime convictions in beard- and hair-cutting attacks were overturned still should receive the same sentences, federal prosecutors told a judge who will resentence the group.

The members of the eastern Ohio Amish group are scheduled to be resentenced March 2 after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned only their hate crimes convictions.

New sentences are required because the original sentences were based both on hate crimes convictions and convictions on other charges but did not differentiate between them.

The attacks were in apparent retaliation against Amish who had defied or denounced the authoritarian style of Sam Mullet Sr., leader of the Bergholz community in eastern Ohio.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, in a court filing on Friday, said Mullet should be resentenced to 15 years for concealing evidence and making false statements to the FBI. Both of those charges were not overturned.

The other defendants should also be given the same lesser sentences. Those defendants who have already been released should be sentenced to time served, the prosecutors said.

Prosecutors argued that the conduct that led to the hate crime charges, which included kidnapping, should still be considered even if the defendants are no longer convicted of a hate crime.

Defense attorneys are expected to file their response next week.

The judge’s decision at the new sentencing hearing will determine whether the government will seek a new trial for the hate crime charges, prosecutors said.

Amish live in rural communities and dress and live simply, shunning many aspects of the modern age such as electricity, refrigeration and computers. Many don’t drive and instead use horse-drawn buggies. They believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards once they marry. Cutting it forcibly is considered offensive.

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